The asymmetry in angular rigidity of the proton donor and proton acceptor of hydrogen-bonded hydrogen fluoride binary complexes is investigated. The intermolecular bending frequency of HF, as the proton donor, is linearly proportional to the square root of the dissociation energy, whereas that of the proton acceptor is always much lower. The asymmetry, measured by the ratio of bending elastic constants of HF to that of the proton acceptor, is generally >2, and varies pronouncedly with the acceptors reaching values >20. Molecules with nitrogen as the bridged acceptor atom show an angular rigidity nearly one order of magnitude greater than the group with oxygen as the proton acceptor.hydrogen bonding ͉ hydrogen fluoride ͉ intermolecular interactions T he noncovalent interaction between individual molecules or molecular units is a determining factor for molecular organization and polymeric shape. A rich diversity of such interactions exists. Often, the dominant intermolecular interaction is the hydrogen bond. Among the reasons for this structural importance is the rigidity that it confers upon the system. It has been known for half a century that hydrogen bonding is highly directional. The hydrogen bond consists of two units: proton donor and proton acceptor. Thus, the rigidity in the system may be analyzed as angular rigidity of the proton donor, angular rigidity of the proton acceptor, and radial rigidity of the binding pair. Traditionally, the strength of the hydrogen bond has been correlated with the readily measured red shift of the proton donor stretching frequency (1, 2). Photofragment translational spectroscopy by Miller and coworkers (3) has provided precise values for the hydrogen bond strength. Occasionally radial rigidity is used as an indicator of hydrogen bond strength, but the angular rigidities have rarely been discussed, mainly because of the lack of systematic experimental and theoretical investigations and the complexity of hydrogen bonded systems. Recently, the Saykally group (4) discovered that the lifetime of the hydrogen bond for water trimer decreases by three orders of magnitude with single excitation of an out-of-plane librational vibration, showing the significance of angular motions. Luzar and Chandler (5), using molecular dynamic simulation, found that the librational motions play a more significant role than does translation in breaking the hydrogen bond in liquid water.
Correlation Between Proton Donor Bending Frequency and Hydrogen Bond StrengthAlthough water hydrogen bonding is the most studied, hydrogen fluoride is probably the simplest molecule readily forming hydrogen bonds. The intermolecular bending frequencies of both the proton donor and proton acceptor of a number of HF complexes are available from high-resolution laser spectroscopy of molecular beams or infrared absorption spectroscopy of matrix-isolated complexes. The spectral measurements at the vibrational excited states are frequently obtained as combination bands.The intermolecular bending frequencies ( D ) of HF, as p...